1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a handle unit for a vacuum cleaner. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a handle unit for a vacuum cleaner having a supporting structure for accessories such as accessory brushes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an upright vacuum cleaner includes a suction brush assembly facing a surface to be cleaned, a cleaner body disposed at a top end of the suction brush assembly, and a handle unit disposed at a top end of the cleaner body for users to control the upright vacuum cleaner.
A motor chamber and a dust collecting chamber are formed inside the cleaner body. A driving motor for generating suction force is disposed in the motor chamber. The motor chamber is in fluid communication with the dust collecting chamber. The dust collecting chamber has a filtering member for filtering contaminants contained in air drawn in via the suction brush assembly. Any one of cyclone dust collectors and dust bags can be used as the filtering member. The dust collecting chamber is in fluid communication with the suction brush assembly via a connecting hose. Therefore, the suction force of the driving motor is transmitted to the suction brush assembly via the dust collecting chamber and the connecting hose. An end of the connecting hose is attachably/detachably disposed at the suction brush assembly. Therefore, when cleaning any one of corners, edges, and places located at a height higher than the floor, users can separate the connecting hose from the suction brush assembly so as to clean them using the connecting hose.
Furthermore, separate accessories, such as a mini-turbine brush for the cleaning of special materials, for example, a carpet or blanket, a crevice cleaning tool, and so on can be attached to the connecting hose. Manufacturers of the upright type vacuum cleaners usually offer or sell these separate accessories.
However, the accessories are usually kept in storage in an unspecific place without connecting to the connecting hose so that it is inconvenient to store the accessories. Accordingly, users experience inconvenience when having to search for the specific accessory stored separately for an application and when needing to connect the specific accessory to the connecting hose.
To solve the problem, Korean Patent Publication No. 2001-0106671 discloses an accessory fixing apparatus comprising a separate supporting member disposed on a rear side of the cleaner body for fixing an accessory brush therein. However, because the connecting hose is usually connected to the rear side of the cleaner body, a problem arises in that the connecting hose is interfered with the accessory fixing apparatus. As a result, users experience inconvenience when using the connecting hose.
To solve the above problems, this applicant has filed the application with respect to a vacuum cleaner, namely, Korean Patent Publication No. 2005-0116081. The vacuum cleaner has a supporting bracket disposed on the handle unit and for an accessory brush to be detachably mounted in the supporting bracket so that the connecting hose is not interfered with the supporting bracket and the accessory brush can easily be connected with or separated from the connecting hose during cleaning work. To store the accessory brush in the handle unit certainly provides users with the convenience of use. However, the vacuum cleaner produces a side effect in that manufacturing cost is increased because the supporting bracket is separately manufactured and assembled at the handle unit. Furthermore, the handle unit usually includes a front and rear handle covers separately formed and assembled each other so that the manufacturing process of the handle unit is complex.